All the Right Reasons in this Beautiful Season
by swirls-and-curls-kun
Summary: Rin and Suguro are told they'd never make it as a couple, so they decide to try going on a date before summer begins. It fails miserably, but eventually it becomes about more than just proving the others wrong. Keeping their relationship a secret proves fairly impossible when they're forced to spend their summer with the others near a beach where strange activity has been reported.
1. Arguments and Invitations

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Blue Exorcist in any way. The story and characters belong to Kazue Kato, that talented mangaka... I am not earning anything but simple entertainment in writing this.

**A/N: **Hello everyone! I'm so glad I finally came up with something to write about with Bon and Rin because they are a pairing I love so soo much. I'd been thinking and thinking forever and thought up this story. I'll be honest, I don't know how long it's going to be, but I guess we'll find that out together! xD

I'm giving it a T rating for now, but if you're familiar with my work, it will eventually change to M.

Please read and submit a review, lovely readers!

* * *

All the Right Reasons in this Beautiful Season

* * *

Arguments and Invitations

To say Rin Okumura was 'out of it' would have been an understatement.

While sitting in class listening to Yukio, his younger twin brother, lecture about the history of the Kraken, he had to keep himself from falling asleep. It didn't help that it was after two o'clock, meaning it was almost time for class to end. Plus it was Friday. If he didn't live with his teacher, he would have considered skipping out on class today.

Looking out the classroom window to the blue, cloud-filled sky, he smiled. It was almost the end of the academic year, and that meant summer vacation was on its way.

Grinning eagerly, he began thinking up a list of things he planned to do while school was out.

Like going to the beach, surfing, exploring, having tons of fun, and maybe going on a date… if that came up.

Subtly turning to his right, he observed Shiemi Moriyama, a pretty and very youthful blonde girl who happened to be one of the first people he met at this academy, as she rushed to take as many notes as possible. Her devotion to this even though her grades weren't necessarily the best was something Rin admired about her. They often failed a test or two together, but somehow managed to make up for that with homework assignments and an occasional passing test grade.

Dating Shiemi had been on his mind ever since he saw her in her garden, and that desire grew even stronger when she came out of her shell more and started wearing an actual uniform… which showed off her attractive figure, proving she wasn't just a little kid. That innocent face of hers made it hard to imagine doing anything… naughty with her, though. So Rin eventually put the idea of dating Shiemi on the back burner, and he made sure the heat was off.

When she turned and looked at him with her emerald green eyes, he jumped.

"Rin? Are you okay?" the girl asked with a smile.

Jeez, she really was innocent…

"I'm fine. Thanks for asking. I guess… I'm just a bit tired." Rin whispered back, making sure to carry on a dialogue with her while Yukio wasn't looking.

"Hm. Okay. You should get more sleep at night, that way you'll feel much more energized in class."

"Right."

Rin's deep blue eyes wandered past Shiemi to the dark-haired girl who was seated off by herself.

Izumo Kamiki.

She was a year older than he was, and had a wavering chip on her shoulder for other people to boot. Often times, she was the first to arrive in class and tried her best to be the first to leave. That kind of anti-social attitude was both repelling and inviting. Nobody wants to date the person who is always busy or always with someone, but still, she could make more of an effort to get closer with everyone. They'd all been through so much together.

"_Why am I thinking about dating polka-brows?"_ the pointy-eared boy thought.

Moving on from her datability, Rin honestly started to wonder what she would be doing this summer. She didn't usually talk about her home, or family for that matter. In fact, she remained distant from everyone in those respects.

At hearing a laugh coming from the back of the classroom, the boy turned and looked over his shoulder at the three only other guys in the classroom… apart from the puppet-holding guy, Nemu Takara.

Renzō Shima, Konekomaru Miwa, and Ryūji Suguro.

The three of them were a trio that was seldom seen separated. They had a close friendship, and Rin was a little jealous that he didn't really have that. Only the tiniest bit, though.

Each one of them had very different personalities, which had been a little strange to him at first. It wasn't until their trip to Kyoto that he learned the three of them practically grew up together. He knew from then they would always be close, no matter what.

The laugh he'd heard came from Shima, of course. Shima was _always_ laughing about something, and it occasionally got him into trouble.

"It's not funny…" Suguro said with his eyes closed.

"Sorry, sorry." Shima apologized, and then crumpled up a piece of paper.

"Is there something we should know about?" Yukio asked, now looking at the trio.

"Absolutely not, sir!" Shima answered seriously.

Konekomaru seemed like the only one of them being attentive and respectful.

Rin raised an eyebrow when he saw the glasses-wearing boy trying to hide a smile.

So he was in on whatever joke Shima made, too, huh?

"Well anyway…" Yukio said, and then looked down to the watch on his wrist. "I guess that's it for today." He continued. And immediately after he said that, the bell rang, signaling the end of class for the day.

"Yes!" Rin shouted excitedly.

The weekend had officially begun.

After packing his briefcase and heading over to the classroom door, Yukio turned. "Please don't forget about the final next week, you all. Study hard so you can do well!" he said, then turned and exited the classroom.

"F-final?!" Rin echoed.

Shiemi looked at him curiously. "Did you forget, Rin?"

"I… I don't even _remember hearing_ about it!"

"Of course we're having a final, silly. I've been studying for it already… There's so much material to cover." The blonde girl continued, looking down to her notes.

"Well, I'm not gonna let some test bum me out! Summer's almost here, so I'm definitely gonna live it up as best I can!" Rin said with a grin. "Oi, Shiemi? What are you gonna do this summer?" he asked, seemingly putting the exam out of his mind that easily.

"Me? Well, I'll probably end up working at the shop with my mom."

"Hmm? Sounds totally boring."

"It's okay. I'm fine with it. And what about you?"

"I… uh… I don't know just yet." The navy-haired boy answered sincerely.

Having overheard the conversation between Rin and Shiemi, Shima walked up with his booksack on his back. "What are you knocking her plans for when you don't even know what you'll be doing?" he asked.

"Hey, I didn't tell her to jump off a bridge or anything! I just said it sounded a little boring."

"You shouldn't give Moriyama hell for having plans if you don't even know what you're gonna do." Suguro said, coming up next to Shima with his bag over his shoulder to look down at Rin.

"Can we drop it, guys? It wasn't that big a deal." Rin turned from Shima and Suguro and looked at Shiemi. "I'm sorry for calling you plans boring, Shiemi."

"It's fine! I know working all the time isn't the most interesting thing to do."

Rin quickly turned back to Shima and Suguro. "There, we made up. It was honestly none of you guys' business to begin with though…"

"That's not the point, baka!" Suguro shouted.

Konekomaru quickly came over and put a hand on Suguro's shoulder. "Bon… Please, come on. You shouldn't be arguing with Okumura."

"Yeah, he's not worth the time or the headache…" the Mohawk-haired man said, and then continued on his way out of the classroom.

"Putting that behind us," Shima began with a smile, "See you guys next week!" he said. When he saw Izumo heading to the door, he hurried over to her side. "Izumo-chan! Do you need someone to walk you to your dorm?!"

"No. Jeez. You sure are a persistent fellow." The dark-haired girl said, and then left the room.

"Izumo-chaaaaan… You're so cooold." Shima's voice echoed in the hallway.

After retrieving his bag from his table, Konekomaru made to follow after Shima. He stopped however, when he got in front of Rin and Shiemi's table. "Sorry about Bon. I know we're all friends and all, but it seems like you two still can't go too long without arguing. Don't read too much into it, though. He means well." He said to Rin, and then left the classroom.

Shiemi turned. "Rin…"

Said boy picked up his booksack and got up. "Shiemi, do you need me to walk you back to your place?" he asked.

"Huh? Oh! No! I'll be fine on my own!" the blonde replied.

"You sure?"

"Yup! I've always got Nii-chan with me if something bad happens! You should go home and study! Don't worry about me!"

Rin smiled down at Shiemi and nodded. "Okay. I'll see you later, then." He said, and then left the classroom.

He was pretty glad it was the weekend. Now he could finally relax.

* * *

"Oi, Rin. Shouldn't you be studying for the final exam next week?" Yukio asked, looking up from his paperwork to his lazing brother.

"I'm going to. I promise." Rin responded, lying on his bed with his hands behind his head nonchalantly.

"This is no joke, Rin. I'd like for you to pass the exam, so you'd best be doing all you can to prepare."

"You could give me the answers. That'd help a lot, haha. ...Though even if you did, somehow I doubt I'd get anything higher than a 'C'." Rin said.

"Rin, I mean it-"

"Okay, okay I'm doing it."

Rin sat up and got off his bed, then opened his booksack that he had left on the floor when he'd first gotten back to the room. After pulling out his notebook, he stood up and walked to the door.

"Where are you going?" Yukio asked.

"To study on the roof. I can't be cooped up in here while reading or I'll end up falling asleep."

There was some truth in that statement, but honestly he really didn't want to feel pressured by Yukio's presence.

"Okay, but don't slack off. It's a cumulative exam, you know?"

"Yeah, yeah."

While walking through the dormitory, Rin couldn't help but wonder if he would just end up spending his entire summer here doing absolutely nothing.

Right before he reached the stairs, Kuro, his familiar, seemingly came out of nowhere and started rubbing up against his leg.

"Kuro? What's wrong? You hungry?" he asked, kind of hoping he could start cooking. Perfect excuse to not have to study.

"No, I want to play! Let's go outside, Rin!" the cat replied eagerly.

"I'd love to, but I have to study. Mole-face won't stop bugging me about it. We can play together later on though, okay?" the boy said, waving his notebook in the air.

"Okay! Guess I'll go play by myself for now!" Kuro said, and then headed to the front door.

"Have fun, Kuro." Rin said. He then turned and climbed the stairs. Reaching the door that led out to the roof of the building, he unlocked it with his key and put his hand on the door handle. After opening it, he stepped out into the fresh air and inhaled deeply. Thankfully, it wasn't very hot out. There were a lot of white, harmless clouds out today, after all.

"Guess I'd better get this show on the road." He said while walking over to a corner of the roof. Getting down onto his stomach, he opened his notebook and sighed deeply.

It was a daunting task, reading over his scribbled notes, but he would try anyway.

…

Catching himself from falling forward onto his notebook, Rin shook his head and then slapped his cheeks with his hands. "Man, this is sooo boring… I'm fallin' asleep and I've barely even started studying." He said.

Flipping through the dozens and dozens of pages covered in ink in his notebook, he couldn't help but become a little nervous. Yukio mentioned something about it being cumulative, which was _always_ encouraging…

"I'd be lucky to get even a handful of questions right." He lamented.

After a while, the boy realized he was just blankly staring at his notebook. He yawned and decided he should stop for the day. It would do him no good to just keep overwhelming himself like this, anyway.

It was when he got up and stretched that he heard voices off in the distance.

Walking over to the edge of the roof, he was surprised to see Shima and Konekomaru coming towards his and Yukio's dorm. They were talking about something, but he couldn't tell what it was.

After sticking his pointed ears out, he could make out what they were saying.

He raised an eyebrow when he heard them debating about whether or not inviting him and Yukio to study would be a good idea.

"But why Yukio? He's the teacher. Meaning _he_ doesn't have to take the exam." Shima commented.

"Still, he could help us. He's a wealth of knowledge, so not inviting him would be a bad idea. Besides, things might go better if the two of them showed up together, and not just Okumura. This was your idea, Shima. So at least think about ways to go about it that will make it easier on everyone... especially Bon." Konekomaru answered.

"...I guess you've got a point there. Maybe he'll give us some answers, heh."

With a smile, Rin quickly hurried over to the door that led inside. He slid down the rails along the stairs, excited over the thought of hanging out with people. Not to mention getting to study when things weren't so boring.

Even though he'd made it to the front door quickly, the doorbell didn't ring.

Putting his ear to the door, Rin couldn't believe it when he heard Shima and Konekomaru still debating about whether they should do it or not.

Then things grew quiet.

Suddenly, the doorbell rang out from the hallway, and the boy smiled, showing off his straight rows of teeth. They had obviously decided to go through with it.

Rin took a second to calm himself down a bit, then opened the front door.

"O-Okumura…" Konekomaru muttered.

"Huh?"

"That was… kinda fast." Shima said with an amused look on his face.

"Oh, well I was on my way out to play with Kuro. He's been outside for about an hour playing by himself, and I was getting kind of tired of studying." Rin said.

"Kuro?" Konekomaru echoed. "I want to play with-"

Shima cleared his throat and looked at his shorter companion. "Remember why we came here, Koneko."

"Oh, right."

"We came here to invite you and Okumura-san to a study group tomorrow. Wanna come?" Shima asked.

Rin's blue eyes gleamed for a second, and his tail started wagging from his excitement. "Sure!" he replied.

"Cool, cool. Meet us at the library tomorrow around noon. We'll be on the second floor, kay?"

"Okay!"

"Can you ask your brother if he will come too?" Konekomaru added.

"Sure! I'll definitely get him to come. But he has a lot of paperwork to do, so I doubt he can stay for too long. And... thanks for inviting us, guys."

Raising his hands, Konekomaru smiled. "No, thank you. You guys are helping us, too. If we can get Okumura-san for even just a while, that'll be great."

"Well, I'll see you guys tomorrow then!" Rin said with a smile.

Shima turned and waved his hand. "Alright. See you then." He said.

"Take care, Okumura."

"You guys, too."

As Shima and Konekomaru left the dorm, Shima looked up to the sky. "Hm, looks like some storm clouds are coming…"

"Hey, Shima." The shorter boy called quietly.

"Hm?"

"Are you sure this is okay… I mean… inviting Okumura and all… Bon might not be in a mood to study with him."

"It'll be fine! What Bon doesn't know won't hurt him. Besides, it's not like he'll be the only other person there. We managed to get the girls to come too."

"I'm still not so sure…"

"Like I said, it'll be fine. Now let's hurry and get back to our dorm before we get caught in the rain. Those storm clouds are practically coming out of nowhere." The pink-haired boy said, before he started fast-walking.

"O-okay! I'm coming!" Konekomaru said, and then hurried after his friend.

**Comments are welcome and encouraged!**


	2. Not Unanimous

Not Unanimous

* * *

"Why should I go to a study session with you and your classmates?" Yukio asked in response to Rin, who had asked him to join the study group tomorrow.

"Come on, Yukio! We could really use your guidance. It's not like you'll be giving us the answers or anything…"

"How do you know I won't be busy tomorrow?"

"Because you are such a good person that you'll make time for your students." Rin replied, hoping that would be enough to convince his brother to come along with him. Even though he could be dense sometimes, he knew the others wanted Yukio to come so he could help them out.

Neither he nor any of the others in the class were stupid enough to think he'd give them the answers though. The thought of the instructor being there was just reassuring.

"Rin-"

"Look, we got invited together."

"No we didn't. _You're_ asking me to go in your classmates' stead."

"…Even so, they want us to come together. So why not? You don't even have to stay that long."

After putting his pen down on his desk and sighing, Yukio closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. "If I say yes, will you leave me alone?" he asked.

Rin smiled and his tail started wagging. "Definitely! But you have to mean it!"

"Alright. I'll join you all in your little study group tomorrow. Now please, let me concentrate on these papers." Yukio said, defeated by his brother's persistent nature.

"Awesome! Thanks for your help, bro!"

"Don't mention it."

Now that he had convinced Yukio to go with him to the study group, Rin decided to relax a bit. Lying back on his bed, he stared up at the ceiling for as long as he could until it got boring. He then turned on his side and closed his eyes.

It had gotten late since Shima and Konekomaru had stopped by, and he had grown a bit tired. All the studying he had done was so exhausting on his brain.

After Rin had fallen asleep, Kuro came into the room and walked over to Yukio to brush up against his leg for a second, then went over to Rin's bed.

After jumping up onto it, he crawled up under the boy's arm and then got comfortable beside him.

Yukio looked up from the papers in front of him to stare out the window.

"Oh, it's raining." He said when he saw the droplets of water start hitting the window.

* * *

Saturday just before noon.

"It's ruined! It's completely ruined!" Rin voice echoed in the large dormitory.

"What are you talking about?" Yukio asked as he waited at the front door for his brother so they could head over to the library.

"My notebook is RUINED!" Rin continued, and then ran down the stairs.

Holding it up in front of Yukio, he showed him the ink runs and unreadable characters on his soaked pages.

"You left it outside during the storm, didn't you?"

"…I-I forgot about it!"

"Well, do you still want to go? Without notes, you'll be pretty useless-"

"No, I'm going! _We're_ going! I don't need this!" the pointy-eared boy said, and then tossed his notebook on the floor.

"Then let's get going. I have things to do, so I can't be stuck in the library all day." Yukio said, and then opened the front door.

"H-hey! Wait for me!"

* * *

Suguro stared out the window of the second floor at the library with his cheek rested on his hand. He was looking at the summer sky, enjoying the stacked clouds floating around.

Konekomaru and Shima were at the table, sitting across from him and doing their own things. Koneko was reading a manga, and Shima was playing a game on his phone.

The three of them were waiting for the rest of their study group to arrive.

In Suguro's case, he was only waiting for Shiemi, Izumo, and Nemu because that was who he was expecting to come.

Shiemi, bouncing excitedly up the stairs with her booksack flapping in her right hand, arrived and came over to the table her classmates were seated at.

"Good afternoon, everyone!" she greeted with a beautiful smile.

"Hey, Moriyama." Suguro said.

"Moriyama-san, I'm so glad you could grace us with your presence!" Shima added.

Konekomaru returned her smile and waved.

"Are any of you as nervous as I am about this exam?" the blonde asked as she took a seat beside Suguro.

"I know I am. But Bon and Koneko will probably do fine." Shima answered, and then turned off his phone.

"Well if you studied as much as you played on that phone of yours, you'd be more confident…" Izumo commented as she climbed the stairs opposite the ones Shiemi had came in from.

"Izumo-chan? You pay attention to what I'm doing?" Shima asked with starry eyes.

"Not really. But it _is_ annoying to see you playing on that phone when you think no one can see you." The girl said as she took a seat at the table next to Konekomaru.

Nemu arrived and greeted everyone with his puppet, as he so often did. Suguro pulled his notebook out from his booksack and then opened it to the last place he had studied from.

"So should we talk about the demons first? Or-"

"There they are!" Shima said as he looked over the edge of the glass railing.

Konekomaru and Izumo both looked over and saw Rin and Yukio coming into the library from the front doors of the library.

Shiemi and Suguro also looked over the edge. While Shiemi smiled at the sight of Rin and Yukio, Suguro raised an eyebrow.

"What the hell?" Turning to Shima and Konekomaru, he squinted. "You guys invited them, didn't you?"

Konekomaru looked away. He didn't really enjoy this side of Bon, so that's why he was initially against this. "Well… it was really about Okumura-san… But Okumura answered the door, and we couldn't really invite one without the other…" he mumbled.

"Calm down, Bon. It'll be fine." Shima assured.

"I wish you guys had told me he was coming-"

"Good afternoon guys!" Rin said with a wave as he hurried up the stairs to meet the group.

Yukio followed after him and greeted the group when he made it to the table.

Suguro rolled his eyes and looked away from Rin. He didn't really want to be bothered with him today, and had he known he was coming, he would have just studied on his own.

He didn't hate Rin, but he liked avoiding him when he could. They argued more than he liked, and he was in no mood for it today.

"Everyone," Yukio began, and then put his briefcase on the table, "Let's get to work. I have some papers to get to, so I don't want to be here all day."

"I agree." Izumo added.

Konekomaru put his manga away and got out his notebook before speaking. "I think looking over the demons should be first. Then we can move on to what makes them stronger, and what weakens them. Then we should focus on what verses work best against which demons."

Rin took a seat beside Shiemi, and smiled at her.

The girl blushed, but smiled back.

Suguro noticed Rin's smile over Shiemi's shoulder and immediately looked away from him. Moriyama was a very nice person for hanging out with him and being nice to him all the time. But him, on the other hand, he couldn't take being around Rin for too long. A class period was really about all he could take. Though they had worked together to deal with the Impure King, that didn't mean he suddenly wanted to hang out with the guy all day long.

For now, he would bear with this study session, and when it was over, he'd deal with Konekomaru and Shima later.

"Shall we begin?" Yukio asked, and then took the only seat at the end of the table.

* * *

Sitting at the table with a somewhat lost look on his face, Rin looked around and tried to see how everyone else was doing with the first group of demons they had studied.

Shima looked a bit lost, but not as much as he usually did.

Izumo had a bored expression on her face. She was obviously retaining the knowledge.

Konekomaru looked a bit confident and very attentive, just like in class.

Nemu, and his puppet, also looked the same too. Uninterested and spacey.

Shiemi had an extremely focused expression on her face, and her cheeks were somewhat puffed out. It was a look he was used to seeing on her. It meant she was trying to understand the information being discussed.

Suguro looked bored, just like Izumo. He probably knew all of this already.

"Okumura, are you okay?" Konekomaru asked Rin, making him jump in surprise.

"Wh-what do you mean? Why are you asking me that?" the navy-haired boy asked in response.

Yukio stopped talking and looked at Rin. Everyone else also turned their attention to Rin, making him feel a little uncomfortable.

"You look kind of lost… and where are your notes?" the glasses-wearing boy continued.

With a hint of red on his cheeks, Rin looked out the window. "Oh… my notes… I accidentally left them outside and they got rained on."

"Rin! How irresponsible of you!" Shiemi scolded.

"That's right! You're the one who needs the notes the most!" Nemu, or Nemu's puppet, added.

Rin squinted at it for a second, thinking about how rude it always was, and then turned to Shiemi. "Can we share notes? Please?"

The girl's emerald eyes lit up for a second before she responded. "Oh, sure-"

"No, don't bring Moriyama down because you're careless." Suguro said.

"What was that?"

"Bon, you shouldn't be starting anything with Okumura." Konekomaru advised.

"I'm not. Actually, I was just about to give him my notes since I already know everything we're covering."

When he saw everyone staring at him with shocked expressions, Suguro looked away as if it was no big deal. He _did_ know the material, after all. Why not lend his notes to someone who was basically learning impaired?

Everyone was still staring at him, making his offer incredibly awkward.

"Jeez, just take the notes!" he shouted, and tossed them over Shiemi so Rin could catch them.

Yukio shook himself out of his shock at Suguro's actions and looked at the watch on his wrist. "Well, we should get back to this studying. I can't stay here much longer."

"O-okay!" Shiemi said with a nod.

And just like Suguro had said, he didn't need his notes. He was doing just fine without them. In fact, he even answered more of Yukio's questions than he had before he'd lent Rin his notebook.

Rin, who had kind of tuned out of the study session, held Suguro's notebook in his hands and read the characters one by one. It was memorization. He was memorizing Suguro's handwriting. And he didn't know why. It was just… something he wanted to do now that he had this notebook in his possession.

After a while, he moved so that Shiemi was in the way and then started flipping through the pages. Suguro had very nice handwriting, especially compared to his own. Rin smirked when he saw a drawing of a penis scratched out on one of the pages.

It must have been Shima's doing. Konekomaru was not the kind of person to do something like that.

The thought of Shima having that kind of relationship with Suguro, and the thought of this joking familiarity between the two made him a little… jealous…

Flipping back to some notes from earlier dates, he saw more little random sketches on the sides of Suguro's notes. But these weren't inappropriate. They seemed more like ones someone would doodle if they were bored. Like intricate designs, clouds, a random flower, a guitar, shooting stars, and other things he must have been thinking about the days he'd taken these notes.

He could imagine Suguro did get bored, considering he was so smart and knew all this stuff… probably because he studied ahead of time.

One page he found caught his attention even more than the penis doodle had.

This one was not actually attached to his notebook. It was one that was uncrumpled and stuck inside it.

There was a baby with arrows and a bow, which he assumed was Cupid, and then there was Suguro being shot by an arrow the baby had shot.

Was this the thing they were causing a scene about in class yesterday?

Quite a few questions rose in his mind, but he didn't have time to answer any of them because Yukio was now saying it was time for him to go.

While everyone else started complaining and asking what they'd do without him, Rin sat quiet.

He had an idea, but Yukio had to leave for him to voice it.

"Guys," he began when he saw his brother exiting the library, "We're going back to my dorm."

"What? Why?" Izumo asked.

"Do you have to ask? Mole-face will eventually get there, so anything we have to ask him, we can ask him there. Besides, it's Saturday. The library closes in a few hours anyway, right?"

Shima raised an eyebrow. "We're going back to your dorm?"

"Yup! It's much less intimidating than this library, don't you think?"

"I do…" Shiemi mumbled honestly.

Nemu stood up and put his books away. "I have things to do." The puppet said in his stead. "I'll see you all in class next week."

Rin squinted at the puppet again. _"So rude."_ He thought.

When Nemu was gone, he took a look around. Everyone was still here. Even Suguro and Izumo.

They were apparently on board with the plan to go back to the dorm.

After giving Suguro his notebook back, with a smile as he recalled the doodles, Rin stood up and headed over to the stairs. "Let's get going, everyone!"

Shiemi was the first to get up, having grown a bit uncomfortable with all the books around, and the others weren't far behind her and Rin.

* * *

Shura ran her fingers through her long ponytail as she headed down the halls of the True Cross Academy. She was looking for Yukio to ask him how Rin was progressing in his training, since she knew what the esteemed professor had in store for the kiddies this summer.

When she reached his office, she peeked her head inside and grinned when she saw Yukio in the midst of grading some papers.

The boy noticed her almost immediately and looked up to meet her gaze.

"Shura, what are you doing here?"

The woman stepped into the office and walked over to the desk, before she leaned on it. "I'm here to ask about Rin. How's his training progressing?"

"You haven't been keeping an eye on him?"

The woman rolled her eyes. "No because I've been very busy. I told you I was taking a trip out of town with Angel to deal with some rising cases of upper-class demons."

…Maybe she forgot to tell him.

"He's doing fine. He's taken better control over the Kurikara Sword, though he's been slacking off a bit lately…"

"As usual. You planning to test him and the others, right?"

"Of course." Yukio said.

"Well, don't overdo it on the written portion of the exam. You know the kid's not so great with that."

"Shura-"

"Anyway, I'm glad to be back. Let's get out of this office. Get some fresh air or something. I have some things I need to catch up on."

Drinking. Shura wasn't one to be so obvious about her love of alcohol, but she had been apart from her love for too long while traveling with that stick in the mud Angel.

When Shura told him she'd be waiting for him in the lobby and left, Yukio took his glasses off and pinched the bridge of his nose. Perhaps he would… revise the exam over the course of the next day or two. There were a few questions on it that didn't really need to be there...

* * *

Later that evening in the living room area of Rin and Yukio's dormitory.

"I thought the point of us coming here was to have your brother help us with this." Suguro said to Rin with an annoyed look on his face. He'd grown a bit fed up with playing the waiting game.

The group had been studying for a few hours now while waiting for the moment when Yukio would come back to the dorm.

"He'll be here soon, I promise!"

"Actually, instead of continuing like we have been, why don't we take a break?" Konekomaru suggested, sitting on the floor with Kuro in his lap.

"I think that's a great idea." Shima agreed. "Let's all play a little game." He continued.

"What game?" Shiemi asked excitedly.

Shima grinned.

"King."

"King? What's that?" the blonde girl asked.

"Gimme a sec!"

Everyone watched as Shima got up and hurried into the kitchen. After a loud noise, which sounded like him shuffling through silverware, he returned with a few plastic spoons in his hand.

"Why'd you get plastic spoons?" Rin asked.

"Because I need to write on them. Can't do that with regular spoons." Shima said, and then pulled out a permanent marker from his pocket and then scribbled something on each spoon. He looked around at everyone excitedly. "Okay, this is how the game goes."

"I didn't come here to play games." Izumo commented.

"Izumo-chan, don't be so cold!"

"Ugh…"

"Let me explain the game at least."

"Go ahead. I can't stop you, anyway." The dark-haired girl said.

"Right! Well this is how it's played. We each draw spoons that have something written on the handles. There's one with a K on it, and that stands for King. The others have numbers on them. Whoever is the king will randomly call out two numbers, or maybe more, and then they will give those numbers orders. You, the people with the numbers, have to follow the orders no matter what they may be, or you're out. After the king gives his order and ti is carried out, we put our spoons back together and draw again to keep the game going. Simple, right?"

"That actually sounds kind of fun!" Rin stated with a smile.

"Okay!" Shima shouted, and then put his hand out that was holding the spoons, "Everyone pick one!"

Shiemi and Rin were the first ones to get up. They drew their spoons and then sat down with them in hand.

Shima walked over to Izumo and held out the spoons to her. She took one and looked down at it, uninterested in what was written on it.

Suguro and Konekomaru took spoons when they were offered, leaving Shima with the last one.

"Remember your numbers. But keep them to yourself."

Rin looked down to his spoon and then looked back up. "Who's the king?"

"It's obviously not you." Suguro said.

There was a silence among the group. Everyone's eyes met someone else's, nervous about who would be dishing out the orders for the first round.

"I'm the king." Izumo said, and then held up her spoon to prove it.

There was a 'K' sitting perfectly on the handle of her spoon.

Shima smiled. "Give us orders, lovely king."

"Hmm, okay. Let's see number… five… eat some wasabi." The girl said.

Suguro exhaled deeply through his nose, put his spoon down on the floor, stood up, and then walked into the kitchen. Rin got up as well and followed after the man.

"It's… it's in the fridge." The navy-haired boy said, before opening the door. After getting the wasabi out, he turned to Suguro. "Here."

"Thanks. Looks tasty."

"Hey, you don't have to eat it if you don't want to. Polka-brows is just being mean because she doesn't want to play."

Suguro looked down to the jar of wasabi in his hand. "I'm gonna do it. I won't let her get the better of me."

"You're a brave guy, Suguro."

With reddening cheeks, Suguro turned and grabbed a spoon from the dish drainer, then left the kitchen.

"I was hoping it'd be _someone else_ that had to eat the wasabi," Izumo began, looking at Shima for a second, "But you'll do."

Shiemi's eyes went wide when Suguro opened the wasabi jar and stuck the spoon into it. "You're really going to do it?!"

"Yeah."

Rin walked in and took a seat near Suguro, then watched as he lifted the spoon and put it into his mouth.

Everyone's eyes went wide when his face scrunched up and he turned a little red.

"Bon! You didn't have to go through with this!" Konekomaru shouted.

Suguro threw his hand up, implying it was no problem. Even despite his contorted face, he sat confidently, staring at Izumo.

The girl was surprised that someone had actually gone through with one of her orders. Had it been anyone else in this room, they probably would have chickened out. After looking down to her spoon, she rolled her eyes and tossed it to Shima, who caught it clumsily.

"Everyone return your spoons."

Once all six spoons were in his possession, Shima shuffled them around and then held them out again.

After the other five took spoons, he looked down to the one left in his hand. His eyes lit up when he saw the 'K' on his handle.

"Who's the king this time?" Rin asked.

"Heh heh, that would be me!" Shima beamed as he held out the spoon to prove it.

"This is about to get stupid…" Izumo commented under her breath.

Stupid wasn't the best word to use in describing how the game began progressing from that point on. Shima dared numbers two and five to kiss in uncomfortable places. It was Shiemi and Konekomaru. Shiemi kissed Konekomaru behind his ear, and he returned the kiss in that spot because he didn't want to make a friend feel uncomfortable.

More and more, the orders from the next kings grew in strangeness and awkwardness. Most everyone was avoiding the extremely sexual dares and being somewhat reserved about their power over their friends. Everyone but Shima.

He was holding the King's spoon again and looking around, trying to decide which numbers to choose to do his sexual order.

"I want… number one to sit in number three's lap and kiss them on the neck. Very sensually." He said.

"That is inappropriate!" Izumo shouted.

"So you're one of my victims?!" Shima asked.

Izumo looked down to her spoon for a second. "Oh. No. Nevermind. Carry on."

"Dang it!"

At first Shima was upset, but he realized that he wouldn't want Izumo sitting on anyone's lap and kissing them… unless it was him, of course.

There was a silence following his exclamation as everyone waited for whoever the number holders were to carry the order out.

Rin surprised everyone when he stood up. "Who's number three?" he asked.

"Aw, no way." Suguro said, and then threw his spoon at Shima.

"_You_ were number three?!" the pink-haired boy asked and then started chuckling.

"I'm not doing this order."

"What?" Izumo asked. "You were dumb enough to do my order, and you're still red in the face from it. Why can't you do this simple task?"

"…Shut up…"

"Come on, Bon. Don't wimp out now." Shima said.

After taking a glance at Rin, who, surprisingly, seemed ready to do this, Suguro rolled his eyes. He opened his legs wide so there would be room for another person between them.

Everyone was surprised. Even Izumo.

Rin didn't know what to think. He'd never really thought about doing this kind of thing with Suguro before. It was weird. It was new.

It was _exciting_.

With warm cheeks, he walked over to Suguro and awkwardly took a seat between the man's legs. His heart was racing, his palms were sweaty, and it felt like he had a frog in his throat. It didn't help that everyone was staring. This would be much easier if they were alone. But he sat comfortably anyway, regardless of the audience.

He felt two hands on his shoulder that pulled him back. Turning, he saw that Suguro was blushing a bit.

"There's another part to the order." Shima commented, and then pointed to his neck.

Rin took a deep breath, leaned back, and then pressed his lips against Suguro's neck.

Suguro let a small breath escape his lips, and then closed his eyes. "You're doing it wrong… and your tail is wagging…"

"Well your skin isn't the softest! I'm not the only person to blame here!" Rin retorted as he pulled away.

"Wow, you two can't even be intimate without arguing." Izumo said with a grin.

Shima shook his head before piggy-backing off of Izumo's statement. "Yeah, I'd hate to see you two on a date. You'd probably argue the whole time and end up fighting or something."

Just as Suguro was about to offer a retort, the front door to the dorm opened, and Yukio entered with Shura following behind him.

"What are you brats doing together?" Shura asked when she came into the living room. "And what are _you_ doing sitting in between Suguro's legs?!" she asked Rin.

"We're playing a game." Shima answered.

"You kids and your _games_ these days… Nothing compared to how it used to be..." The redheaded woman said, mumbling that last part.

"Why is Rin in Suguro's lap?" Yukio asked as he came up beside Shura.

Shima grinned. "It was part of the game. Now we see that these two would never get along, even if they were dating."

"Hehehehee! Yeah, these two wouldn't have a snowball's chance in Hell being alone together." Shura nearly fell over from how much the thought made her laugh.

"What's so funny?!" Rin asked.

"I think everyone's just in agreeance that you two wouldn't last five minutes on a date together." Shima said.

"I don't agree!" the navy-haired boy snapped. Quickly, he whipped around and looked at Shiemi, the one person who would be on his side in this. "Shiemi, you don't agree with these guys, do you?"

The blonde girl blushed and looked down to her hands. "Well… you two do argue a lot…"

Rin's shock at her response was short-lived, because he turned to Suguro to ask how he was taking all this. "Suguro, you don't agree with them, do you?"

"Yeah, you've been awfully quiet." Izumo said. "Are you so in agreeance with us that you can't even say anything?"

"Even though I don't exactly want to agree with Okumura, I can't say any of you guys are right. Not that I want to prove you wrong or anything. But I know I'm good when it comes to things like dating."

"The only way we'd know that for sure is if you actually did prove us wrong." Shura said.

"No way." Suguro stated dismissively.

"Then you can't do it. We're right and you're wrong." Izumo said with a haughty air of confidence.

The Mohawk-haired man gritted his teeth, but looked down to Rin. "Fine, let's go out, Okumura! We'll show these guys just how wrong they are, especially Kamiki!"


End file.
